Conservative Republican Assemblyman Chuck DeVore, who has represented Irvine and the rest of the 70th Assembly District for about six years, lost his race for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate on Tuesday. It wasn’t much of a surprise. Carly Fiorina, the winner, is wealthy and well connected to the big political donors in the state.

But DeVore campaigned hard and built an impressive fundraising base of his own, albeit from smaller donors. Many of them saw DeVore, an advocate of nuclear power and a Tea Party favorite, as their only option. DeVore’s approach to governing is simple: there ought to be less of it.

DeVore is termed out of his job in the legislature this year. He could easily slip away into the private sector from where he came and leave politics behind. But it seems some Irvine residents have other plans for him.

There is a movement among Irvine Republicans who want to see DeVore run for mayor in November against incumbent Sukhee Kang, a Democrat.

Supporters of making DeVore mayor say that his experience in Sacramento, where he battled a Democratic majority, makes him perfect for the job back here at home. The city’s budget deficits, while nowhere near the level of the state, is a major problem that DeVore could help fix.

“Irvine needs a strong, principled mayor to get us through this fiscal crisis and put our city back on course,” explains Irvine’s Finance Commission vice-chairman Jeff Lalloway. “Chuck DeVore could hit the ground running and reform City Hall’s budget and bring a level of gravitas that is lacking on the council today.”

POLITICAL SIGN ETIQUETTE BREACH

Late on Sunday night, I broke about 45 traffic safety laws as I drove around Irvine and Newport Beach posting political signs for a superior court judge candidate. There is no good research on how effective campaign signs can be. But if your opponent has them up, you pretty much have to put some up, too. And they do allow a candidate to introduce his or her name to the voters in a cost-effective way.

Usually, campaign signs are only up for about a month or two before an election – unless you are Mr. Yunus Aksoy, who has what seems like hundreds of campaign signs plastering Irvine. The only problem is that Mr. Aksoy was not running for anything on the June ballot. He is running for City Council, an election that does not take place until November.

I appreciate Mr. Aksoy’s attempt at gaining early name ID, but I do not appreciate that his signs continue to clutter the parkways. I think Irvine residents want the summer months to be a reprieve from recorded message phone calls from candidates, mailboxes full of campaign mail – and, especially, campaign signs.

Freelance opinion writer Adam Probolsky is CEO of a research company and lives in Turtle Rock. He may be reached at adamirvine@aol.com

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